The serpent and the seed in the Law
Last month, we saw how the great promise of Genesis 3:15 --
amplified by the enacted parable of Numbers 21 -- pointed forward to the Lord
Jesus Christ. His lifting up on the cross was the divinely-appointed means to
destroy the serpent-power of sin and death.
This fundamental picture of redemption is the basis for
appreciating quite a number of other Bible passages which allude to the serpent
-- or to the woman's seed:
*****
"Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother
of all the living" (Gen 3:20).
The Hebrew is "chavah". Adam's wife already had a name --
"Isha" (Gen 2:23) -- a name which fitly described her origin, for it signified
"Out of man [ish]". But in view of the great promise just received, Adam
evidently felt she needed a new name (or else, being a "prophet", he was
inspired to give her a new name) -- one in keeping with the part she would play
in God's plan of redemption. What more appropriate than "Chavah" --
"Life"!
This new name described her destiny, as the mother of the
redeemer (Gen 3:15). Through the woman, by a specially prepared birth, would
come a son -- the "seed of the woman". He would (in some way not fully perceived
by Adam or Eve at this time) destroy the power of death brought by the serpent.
Whereas the serpent was the "father" of death, this man-child would become the
"father" of life -- and therefore his mother, the one who bore him, would be the
"mother of all the living".
*****
"Adam lay with his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave
birth to Cain. She said, 'With the help of the LORD I have brought forth a man'
" (Gen 4:1).
In no way did Eve lag behind her husband in this expectation
of the fulfillment of God's promise of a redeemer. In fact, she was so eager for
that deliverance that she seized upon her firstborn as the promised "seed of the
woman".
The name "Cain" has usually been considered to derive from the
Hebrew "qanah" -- so as to signify "gotten, or acquired" (as in the KJV margin).
But more modern scholarship makes a connection with another Hebrew word,
"qanith" -- which is now understood to signify "give birth to" or "create".
******
Digression
The Gen 4:1 note in the New English Translation says, "Here is
another sound play (paronomasia) on a name. The sound of the verb 'qanith' ('I
have created') reflects the sound of the name Cain in Hebrew and gives meaning
to it... There are two homonymic verbs with this spelling: one meaning 'obtain,
acquire' and the other meaning 'create' (see Gen 14:19,22; Deu 32:6; Psa 139:13;
Pro 8:22). The latter fits this context very well. Eve has CREATED a man!" (This
new meaning has been supported by the latest studies in the Ugaritic texts which
have come to light quite recently, and which provide useful parallels to aid in
deciphering obscure Hebrew words: see also Kenneth Barker: "The New
International Version: The Making of a Contemporary Translation", page
110.)
The passages listed in the NET note may be much better
translated in light of this recently-discovered meaning of "qanith". For
example, Pro 8:22 reads in the KJV: "The LORD POSSESSED me [Wisdom] in the
beginning of his way, before his works of old" -- this uses the old meaning of
'qanah' (to get, or acquire), but surely misses the point; the context of Pro 8
is the Creation! The NIV, availing itself of the new scholarship, translates the
same passage: "The LORD BROUGHT ME FORTH as the first of his works, before his
deeds of old." And now 'Wisdom' is seen, rightly, as the first of Yahweh's
"creations"!
[It should be noted, for that matter, that -- once the KJV
"possess" is replaced by "bought", which is perhaps the better shade of meaning
-- that even that expression has great significance too. Yahweh is not just the
"Possessor" of all things (ie, the KJV in Gen 14:19,22; Psa 139:13; and Pro
8:22) -- He is also the One who purchases -- or REDEEMS -- all things: He is the
REDEEMER! So -- from the standpoint of salvation, and in light of the New
Testament teaching of the "New Creation" -- "REDEEMER" and "CREATOR" are
essentially one and the same title!]
*****
The KJV of Gen 4:1 has Eve saying, "I have GOTTEN a man from
the LORD". But the NIV, and the NET, point us to a fuller meaning. Now Eve may
be seen to say, "I have CREATED a man of the LORD!" Instead of "a man of Yahweh"
we might say "a Yahweh-man!" -- or, as the New Testament puts it, 'God manifest
in the flesh' (1Ti 3:16) or 'God in Christ reconciling the world to Himself'
(2Co 5:18).
This fits the context very well: it portrays Eve as a
"Creator"; she has sought to be "like God" (Gen 3:5) -- and now -- in her mind
-- she has finally succeeded: just like God, she has created a man! And the man
she has created will truly redeem men from the curse of the serpent and
sin.
But, alas! It was a false hope. Eve's firstborn proved himself
to be instead a son of the serpent, by his enmity against one who more rightly
might be called "seed of the woman", his brother Abel. This enmity culminated in
the murder of his righteous brother. Thus Cain, like his "father" the old
serpent, showed himself "a murderer from the beginning" (John 8:44; 1Jo 3:12).
He was not to be a "creator" of life, but another bringer of death.
*****
Among the animals forbidden as food was "any creature that
moves about on the ground, whether it moves on its belly or walks on all fours
or on many feet; it is detestable" (Lev 11:42).
Since "nothing is unclean of itself" (Rom 14:14,20; Mar 7:15;
1Ti 4:4), it may reasonably be concluded that -- when God designated certain
creatures as "unclean" under the Law of Moses -- He intended to teach moral
lessons. But what lesson is being taught by Lev 11:42?
This verse is an obvious allusion back to the curse upon the
serpent in the Garden: "You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all
the days of your life" (Gen 3:14). The serpent indirectly brought sin into the
world, though without question the moral offence belonged to Eve and Adam --
since they were "under law". The sin of our first parents was crystallized in a
change of nature, and of relationship to the Father and the angels. Thereafter,
it appears that their minds would now be definitely inclined toward the sin
which they had willingly chosen to embrace in the first place.
This mind of the flesh, or "serpent" mind, has been inherited
by all their descendants. It is a frame of mind characterized by thinking
according to the natural desires, rather than the spiritual guidelines of God's
word. This is an "abomination"; any man who lets the flesh take over his mind is
"crawling on his belly"! He is letting the grosser, more materialistic impulses
-- his "belly" -- crowd out and choke the Spirit-mind that a concentration upon
Scripture could cultivate. Such a state of mind, if persisted in, will at last
bring the curse of Eden upon its holders -- death without remedy!
[In this context, it is interesting that the Bible says that
"God made mankind upright, but men have gone in search of many schemes" (Ecc
7:29). God made man to walk on two feet, upright, and lifted up from the
contaminating earth, out of which he had been formed. But it has been man's
disposition to seek out many "schemes" by which he might return, figuratively,
like his "father" the serpent, to crawling upon, or groveling in, the very dust
(Gen 3:14) -- the dust from which his Heavenly Father sought to rescue
him!]
In similar language, Paul speaks of such "natural" men -- and
he describes the moral equivalent of this Mosaic "abomination": "The first man
was of the dust of the earth" (1Co 15:47). Adam was created from the dust, and
when he submitted to sin and its consequences, he was in a sense returning to
that dust -- going upon his "belly" and "feeding" upon the dust (Gen 3:14).
Likewise, Paul says, "For, as I have often told you before and
now say again even with tears, many live [or 'walk': AV] as enemies of the cross
of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach [or 'belly':
AV], and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things" (Phi
3:18,19). These men were nominally brethren of Christ -- that's the implication
of Paul's "live" or "walk". But their lifestyles had made them "enemies" of the
cross! Why?
The cross was the means by which Christ had conclusively put
to death the lusts of the flesh, and it is the invitation and challenge to us to
do the same: to crucify "the world" within ourselves (Gal 6:14). Any who aspire
to put on the name of Christ, yet make no meaningful attempt to live as he did,
are really his "enemies" and not his friends. They profess friendship, but their
actions make them liars. Their God is not Yahweh -- it is their "belly"; their
mind is not on heavenly, spiritual things -- but on earthly, sensual things.
They see all the enticements of the world. Like Eve did with the fruit of the
tree, they desire, they take, and they "enjoy" -- like the serpent, "their
destiny is destruction".
*****
It is not surprising that many of the abominations and
instances of uncleanness under the Law of Moses reflect the events in the Garden
of Eden. Not only is the serpent an abomination (Lev 11:42), but nakedness is to
be scrupulously avoided (Exo 20:26). In fact, to uncover another's nakedness
becomes, in the Hebrew, a euphemism for sexual union (Lev 18:6-19; 20:11),
probably because the first sexual union of Adam and Eve followed close upon
their realization of their "naked" state. Since the imprint of the
"serpent-mind" is inherited by each generation from the preceding one, therefore
childbirth also brings a stigma of uncleanness (Lev 12:1-8). Even the
reproductive functions of both men and women in their most innocent aspects are
nevertheless "unclean" under the Law (Lev 15:16-28).
Since death came into the world because of Adam's sin, merely
to touch a dead body brings an unclean condition. And the legal decree of Deu
21:23, finding its fulfillment in Gal 3:13 ("Cursed is everyone who is hung on a
tree"), probably stems from the fact that sin first entered the world in the
eating of fruit from a tree!
The tragedy of Eden, then, was kept before the eyes of the
Jews in many ways. It must not be forgotten, since it was a reminder of how they
had come to be in their fallen condition. But for those who looked beneath the
surface, there were also prophetic types of the redemptive work of Christ. In
becoming the "last Adam", in order to undo the consequences of the first Adam's
sin, Jesus came under all the aspects of the Edenic curse: he was born "of a
woman, under the Law" (Gal 4:4), necessitating a cleansing sacrifice even by his
birth (Luke 2:21-24). He possessed a "serpent-nature" in common with all men,
and ultimately he crucified that nature by lifting it up on a "tree" (Num
21:6-9; John 3:14), in the process being stripped naked. And thus Jesus died,
again bringing legal defilement to himself and those who handled his
body.
The Law of Moses, and the curse of Eden, cast a shadow over
even this perfect man. But his life was of such quality and worth that the
shadows could not remain. As the great light of the sun, when it rises in its
splendor, drives away all shadows... so the perfect wholeness and beauty of the
Son's character overcame every legal blemish and imperfection -- and in effect
rendered them, and the whole system of which they were a part, null and void.
Death could not hold HIM in the grave; mere legal defilement could not sully his
majesty -- God's justice would allow no such thing:
"This man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and
foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing
him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony
of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him" (Acts
2:23,24).
Nor can mere legal defilement stand in our way of sharing in
the glorious redemption which our Savior has made possible for us!
"When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of
your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins,
having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and
that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. And having
disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them,
triumphing over them by the cross. Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what
you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration
or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the
reality, however, is found in Christ" (Col 2:13-17).
